This Used To Be About Dungeons полностью

“And sometimes there’s no road to the hex edge, or no direct road, or not to the right hex edge, ay?” asked Hannah, who seemed to use an inflected ‘ay’ on a whim. Her accent was hard to place, but it might have been from Cairbre, Alfric thought. “So you’d want to map it out, is what I’m sayin’.”

“You would,” said Alfric.

“Did you?” asked Mizuki. “Because you’re Mister Planning, it seems like. Does one of those pockets contain a plan?”

“It’s complicated,” said Alfric.

“The matter of what’s in your pockets is complicated?” asked Hannah, raising an eyebrow.

“I have a map,” said Alfric. “But I don’t have a firm route because it depends on too many things, not least of which is whether I can keep a party together. If this goes well, and I can interest all of you in a second dungeon, then we’d obviously go to one of the six adjacent hexes, but from there it depends on whether Pucklechurch will be our home base.”

“I own a house,” said Mizuki. “I’m not leaving my house for long.”

“I suppose I’ll echo that, for different reasons,” said Verity. “Asking me to quit my job and take up work as an adventurer, well, that’s something that I would have to think long and hard about.”

“I would go,” said Isra, her words soft.

“I’d go too,” said Hannah. “There’s always work for a cleric on the move, though I’d want to save my best for the dungeons, as I’ve done today. If not, I’ve a room at the temple and can take the apprenticeship at my own speed, for the way of the righteous is often slow, so it is said.”

“We can talk about all that later,” said Alfric. “Personally, while I’m not pinning my hopes on it, I’m looking forward to seeing what we find down in the dungeon. Something to help us travel faster would make a lot of this discussion moot, or if not moot, then at least easier.”

“Like boots that make your stride longer?” asked Mizuki.

“Or something better,” said Alfric. “It’s hard to say what’s going to come out of a dungeon, but it’s not out of the question that we could cut six miles of travel down to none. If we did find something like that, then going to the next dungeons, if we all want to do that, would be a lot easier.”

“Well, I’m excited,” said Mizuki. “I’ve never owned a magic item.”

“Your house is full of them,” said Alfric.

“Well, you know what I mean,” said Mizuki. “A stove isn’t magic.”

“It is,” said Hannah. “You might as well say warp points aren’t magical, ay.”

“You know what I mean,” said Mizuki.

“The difference you’re looking for is entads and ectads,” said Verity. “Stuff that comes from the dungeons, they’re their own thing, separate and different, entads. Ectads are part of a system, like the warming elements, chilling elements, water makers, things like that.”

“They both come from dungeons though,” said Alfric. “The base materials for ectads, anyway. It’s one of the things that we’ll be on the lookout for.”

“But there will be entads in the dungeon?” asked Mizuki.

“There should be,” said Alfric. “I would expect between four and six, but only one or two that are actually worthwhile. We’ll sell some, keep others, depending on what we get. Some bind though, which would mean that we wouldn’t be able to sell them. Most of the profit in a dungeon is in the materials we can extract from it.” He looked at Mizuki. “We’ll need your eyes.”

“And what kind of monsters will we find?” asked Verity.

“That depends,” said Alfric. “The nature of a dungeon depends on too many things to say for certain. The geography of the hex is one element, as are the flora and fauna, but there’s also the time of day, the weather, the season, the positions of the stars, what magic has been used, on and on, and beyond all that, the people in the party going into the dungeon. It’s an art, not a science. We’re following best practices though. It’s said that your first dungeon is always best in the springtime, on a clear day.”

“It’s late spring,” said Verity. “Does that matter?”

“I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” replied Alfric.

“How dangerous will it actually be?” asked Verity.

“That’s hard to quantify,” said Alfric.

“Raccoons,” said Hannah, nodding sagely. “Or maybe another animal of the same size.”

“I’m sorry?” asked Verity.

“It’s what they said, in the seminary, ay?” asked Hannah. “The monsters you find in the dungeons are, oh, like bein’ attacked by two or three raccoons at once. Frightenin’, and a bit of a risk of being scratched or bit, but no one would expect you to die, ay?”

“Raccoons that I will be protecting you all from,” said Alfric.

“Raccoons are gentle creatures,” said Isra.

“Well, obviously,” nodded Hannah. “Another animal then? One that would attack?”

“No animal attacks humans,” said Isra. “Only if they need to defend their young.”

“A rabid raccoon then?” asked Hannah.

“Perhaps,” said Isra.

“I expect scratches and bites,” said Alfric. “I expect a few minor injuries that Hannah will be able to heal, and if it’s anything worse, then we can get other healing. I don’t expect anyone else to be hurt, not seriously.”